Cyclops
Orphaned at a young age after his parents were killed in a plane crash, Scott Summers later became the first student at Charles Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters. Xavier taught Scott how to control his mutant ability, a powerful beam of laser from his eyes. As Scott cannot control this blast, he is forced to wear Ruby Quartz lenses to protect those around him from his devastating power. Origin Scott Summers is the eldest son of USAF test pilot Major Christopher Summers and his wife, Katherine Anne. He was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska alongside his younger brother, Alex. When Scott was 12 years old, his family was flying home from a vacation when their private plane was attacked by a Shi'ar spacecraft. The attack destroyed all but one of their parachutes, which Katherine strapped to Scott while making him hold Alex. Katherine and Chris said their final goodbyes, pushing their boys out of the plane in the hope that they would survive. The plane exploded, presumably killing Scott's parents and causing the parachute to catch fire. Scott's mutant optic blasts manifested for the first time, and he used them to slow their descent while shielding Alex from the landing with his own body. Though the boys survived, Scott suffered a head injury upon landing. The head injury caused Scott a slight amount of brain damage, affecting the portion of his brain which controlled his latent optic blasts. The brothers were hospitalized, both suffering from traumatic amnesia regarding the incident. They caught the attention of the villainous geneticist Mr. Sinister, who harbored an obsession with the Summers family. Sinister ran an orphanage, the State Home for Foundlings, in Omaha, Nebraska under the guise of "Michael Milbury". Knowing of Scott's mutant power, and believing that he had more potential than his brother, Sinister had Alex adopted to separate the two and render Scott emotionally vulnerable. One night, Scott awoke and accidentally destroyed the roof of the hospital with his power. Witnessing this, Sinister put Scott in a year-long coma. Upon recovering, Scott was placed in Sinister's orphanage and subjected to his tortuous experiments. Sinister placed mental blocks on Scott and took on the role of the orphan bully Nate, or "Lefty", to torment him. He even murdered Scott's potential foster parents to keep him trapped at the orphanage. Sinister would ultimately fail in breaking Scott, however. As he matured, Scott began suffering severe headaches and eyestrain as a result of his mutation and was taken to an eye specialist in Washington, D.C. Through trial and error, the optometrist Nathan Masters (Sinister under an another alias) found that ruby quartz was the only substance that both restrained Scott's optic blasts and eased the vision problems he suffered. He outfitted Scott with a pair of special ruby quartz glasses, which the young mutant would come to rely on for the rest of his life. The First X-Man When he was fifteen years old, Scott ran away from the orphanage after his power emerged in public. His mutant metabolism reached a critical point, and he released an uncontrollable optic blast that accidentally demolished a construction crane. The crane fell towards a crowd of bystanders, and Scott quickly used another blast to destroy the debris and save them. However, they feared his unusual ability and formed an angry mob. Scott escaped the mob by fleeing on a freight train. He was then found by a mutant criminal named Jack Winters, who became his foster father. The physically abusive Jack wanted Scott to help him break into a nuclear power plant, the place where Jack's mutant abilities were triggered by radioactive material. Scott only agreed to help and fight off the guards because he knew that Jack would kill them if he didn't. Professor Charles Xavier had been tracking Scott with the help of the FBI, and intervened to save him. Defeating Jack with Scott's aid, Xavier offered the boy the opportunity to become his first student at the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. Scott accepted so that Xavier would teach him how to control his mutant ability. Adopting the code name "Cyclops", he became the first X-Man. Cyclops' code name originated from the specialized ruby quartz battle visor Professor X designed to help him control his destructive optic blasts. Cyclops never managed to gain full control of his power, but he finally had a means to use it with confidence. He soon met his new teammates, other mutants his age. Cyclops bonded very well with the group, who gave him the nickname "Slim" Summers due to his thin build. They formed the original five X-Men. Cyclops was gifted with the role of field leader by Professor X, and over the years they formed a strong father-son bond. He would eventually become Xavier's most prized student, chosen to carry on his legacy for mutants. Powers and Abilities Cyclops has spent the majority of his heroic career as field leader of either the X-Men or X-Factor, and has developed exceptional leadership skills. According to Nick Fury, Cyclops' leadership skills are at their best in tense situations. Fury notes that the less time Cyclops has to think about a decision, the better it tends to be. Professor X entrusted Cyclops with the tremendous responsibility of leading the X-Men, sensing that he possessed a strong combination of analytical intelligence and tactical brilliance. After years of intensive training in the Danger Room and leading teams of X-Men into combat, Cyclops has evolved into an eminent strategist and battle tactician. It is notable that regardless of their attitude towards his leadership style, the majority of the X-Men tend to obey Cyclops' orders in battle - because they know that he's usually right. As an X-Man, Cyclops has undergone intensive training since his teens to become the ideal mutant warrior. He is a superb athlete and martial artist with extensive training in hand-to-hand combat, holding black belts in judo and aikido. His combat prowess is sufficient enough to easily take down a gang of thugs with his eyes closed, disarm and beat down a gunman before he could get a shot off when Cyclops' back was turned, and effortlessly defeat a trio of brutish convicts. Mental Resistance Thanks to training from Professor Xavier, and due in part to his own emotional stoicism, Cyclops has developed a degree of resistance to psychic probing and manipulation. He is virtually immune to casual scans, and possesses an awareness that makes him difficult to read even for high-level telepaths. Cyclops has honed his mind to such a point that he can maintain his psychic defenses subconsciously. He was capable of trapping a sliver of the Void, a dark and powerful entity, in a psychic prison within his mind. Expert Pilot Cyclops is a talented pilot of fixed-wing aircraft, a skill that he appears to have inherited from his father. It has been implied that Cyclops' intuitive geometric sense improves his abilities in the air. He often acts as the primary pilot of the X-Jet. Category:Protagonists Category:X-Men